Kitab Shumūs al-Anwār wa Kunūz al-Asrār

Description: A lithograph copy of Kitab Shumūs al-Anwār wa Kunūz al-Asrār ['The book of the suns of lights and the treasures of secrets'], a treatise on charms and talismans) by Ibn al-Hajj Muhammed ibn Muhammed (d 1336), printed in 1868 by the Qastaliyah Press in Cairo, with later handwritten notations.

The book contains thirty chapters and is dated 29 Al-Qa’da 1285 (AH) i.e. 1868 AD, and is complete in 186 pages. There are thirty chapters, covering topics such as plants, minerals, water distribution, earth, medicine, love, blessing, paper cutting and so on, as well as two chapters on Jinn activity and Jinn healing.

The lithograph is in a leather binding stamped with the ownership label, ‘Ex Libris L.J. Lloyd’ - it belonged to Leslie John Lloyd (1907-1975), Librarian of the University College of the South West, later to become the University of Exeter, from 1946 until his retirement in 1972.
Creator: Ibn al-Hajj Muhammed ibn Muhammed
Spatial Coverage: Cairo; Egypt
Language: Arabic
Date: 1868
Subject: Magic, folklore and legend
Identifier: EUL MS 220